It's not if, it's when: cash-van guards live under daily threat of another hail of bullets

13 June 2018 - 13:00
By Jeff Wicks

SBV guard Lucky Nxasane, who survived a cash heist, was part of the protest march by guards wanting more protection.
Image:
Jackie Clausen

Cash-in-transit guard Lucky Nxamase will forever carry the scars of the day an AK47 bullet seared through his body, a single casualty in an escalating cash-heist war.

“I will never forget the corridor of the mall ... there was fire coming out of the barrels as they were shooting at me. Every day when I go to work I think about that,” he said.

Nxamase and his crew had come under fire while delivering money to an ATM hall at KwaMashu’s Bridge City mall in 2013.

In the hail of gunfire another guard was killed, shot in the head by the gang of four gunmen who’d ambushed the cash-in-transit men.

“Winter is the worst for me. When it is cold I can feel where the bullet went,” he said, wincing as he motions to the long-healed wound on his buttocks.

“That day, I was the Lima Mike man, the man who carries the rifle. We were walking through the corridor to the ATM in the mall when I noticed a group of men standing together. The next thing they were shooting at me,” he said.